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I've recently discovered mica powders for coloring plastisol and totally loving it for what I'm trying to do. There are a ton of suppliers of mica powders, but I can't seem to find anything that is a "plain" cardinal red. Everything has an obvious tilt toward purple, pink, or orange. Anybody found a cardinal red or a recipe to make one?

between a Meth Lab and a soft plastics hobbyist? My gloves are covered with tiny bits of glitter... But a little more seriously, thanks to many here who helped me get going with soft plastics about a year ago. It's been lots of fun and I've caught some great bass along the way!

That is genius!

Thanks so much! This forum community rules. I'm so glad I asked because I was guessing that I was under-heating, and I don't think I ever would have thought to stir more before heating. Just for fun, here's my safety outfit (no I'm not cooking Meth in my backyard!!) and my sorta-plausible creation that led to the above questions:

So far, my lifetime total of shapes molded is ... 2. Having fun, but I have a few no0b questions: 1) Should reheating cold plastic (in a microwave) after dying work? My youtube-based "education" makes it sound like this is supposed to work, but it seemed like it turned the purple dye to a muddy brown? (A cool color, btw, but not the intended one!) 2) The stiffness I am getting is much less than I expected. (Cue the hilarious comments...) My very first try was with regular plastic, so then I order up this "saltwater" stuff that Barlow's labels as "extra hard." But this also produced a floppier-than-expected result. I can buy hardener, but it seems more likely that I am just doing something wrong. Could it be that I am not quite getting to the transition temp (350F) during the heating? Other common causes of floppiness? 3) I feel like I am sucking a lot of air into the injector, and this may be a cause of some large bubbles in the mold. Anybody have a tip for a newb to do a better job drawing up plastic from the 1 cup Pyrex? Or is that slurping sound OK and my large bubbles are caused by something else?

I can easily find a lot of double hooks with a 90 degree angle between the hooks. But I have a custom application that would benefit from a much larger angle -- ideally opposite at 180 degrees. I would guess this is actually the easiest double hook to build, because the whole thing is simply flat! I can even think of some hacky ways I can make my own by just marrying two single hooks with crimps or wire wrap or some other cleverness. But it would be so much better to have a single path of hook-wire like a frog hook, but at 180 instead of 90 degrees. Even a 120 degree double would be better than 90, and "obviously" those are made because that's a component of a treble hook! But it doesn't seem like anyone sells those as doubles? It will be amusing if I buy trebles and then somehow cut off the additional hook that the manufacturer took the extra effort to weld on... Anybody know of anything like this or have ideas on the simplest ways to make them?

I either got two in a row that were defective, or that reel requires massive effort to reel in even a "medium drag" lure like a small spinnerbait. It's pure speculation on my part, but maybe the short handle and high gear ratio are intended for fishing very-low-drag lures at high speed?

Yes, I realize that "everyone" prefers continuous anti-reverse, but I'm a casual fisherman and far too old to change my ways. Unfortunately, it seems that Shimano's quickfire reels have substantially declined in quality in the last 30 years. The Syncopate barely lasts a season (as a casual fisherman -- I'd think a hard-core angler would be lucky to get a month out of it!). And the Spirex is ... designed for something else? I would be exhausted fishing a spinnerbait with that reel. These appear to be the only reels that Shimano still offers with quickfire. But at this point, the quickfire casting system should be off-patent, so I'm wondering if there are other options for a reel like this? I'd be happy to pay some real money if somebody has a one-hand cast reel that is smooth and last a long time.

LurePartsOnline doesn't sell the "bass" sizes in 0.051, but their supplier Cast Industries does! Fairly large minimum order, but I can live with that. Because of the large minimum, I've first ordered up a variety of wire diameters from McMaster-Carr so that I can experiment and see what I'm going to be able to bend. I think by the standards of the serious fishermen on this forum, the bass that are breaking my lures are pretty small (lots around 3 lb; outliers maybe 5 lbs) -- I think it's more about the lure design somehow adding stress to the wire. But anyhow, I'm breaking 0.035 like toothpicks, so it's time to try more! Thanks all for pointing me in the right direction!

@Munkin Oh, awesome! Do I just hit "Contact Us" and ask about it, or is there a way to order custom combinations directly?

Once I realized you didn't mean the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, I discovered that LurePartOnline.com is a very cool resource that I can't believe I hadn't found with previous googling. THANKS!

I've been making a bait starting from the BOSS "bass jig" (really a spinnerbait form). It's working great except I keep losing big fish to the wire breaking! I'd like to try a much heavier wire -- around 18 gauge / 0.49" / 1mm. I'm not quickly finding anyone selling a spinnerbait form like that? Can anyone point me to one for sale and/or have interest in selling me some custom spinnerbait forms with heavier wire?

@fishballer06 I'm brand new here, so I hope this is a dumb question, but: People aren't literally still pouring lead are they? Lead isn't even legal to fish with here in Massachusetts as far as I know. Is that just what people say when they mean pouring metals? So anyhow, if there is anybody who makes these and could send me a few before bending them, let me know. I'm happy to buy 10 or more if that helps make it worth someone's time!

I want to explore some ideas for a different type of line attachment, so I need to custom bend the wire. But I don't want to deal with forming metals and such, so I'm looking for a "blank" spinnerbait that is just a hook, head, and straight (i.e. not preformed) wire. Does that exist? Thanks!